Kevin Whitcher
The Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA) held an event at Great Portland Street on Wednesday evening this week at which Sol Campbell did a Q&A hosted by Tom Watt, to promote his new biography.
Early in proceedings I am going to squeeze in a quick plug for the next issue of The Gooner because it features a five page interview with Sol, conducted a couple of weeks earlier. It will be on sale on Monday evening at the Newcastle game or you can buy it online here. It is a 64 page end of season special including two special sections on Arsenal in the Cup Final and the 10th anniversary of The Invincibles. Plug over!
So back to the business in hand. Sol answered questions for just over an hour, and talked about various significant moments at Arsenal and other clubs. He said that he prepared for his first trip to White Hart Lane for several days in his mind, knowing that the atmosphere would be hostile, but was helped by the banter with his team-mates in the build up to the game. “Vieira and Dennis were the jokers,” he said. On arrival at the stadium on the Arsenal coach, he described Spurs fans as “frothing at the mouth” and said he was so focused that on entering the stadium, he went into the Spurs dressing room by mistake. He described the experience of playing in that atmosphere as “like a film scene. I was like a gladiator, if you weren’t ready, you were gonna be killed.” In his warm up he ran to all four corners of the ground, so he could get a taste of what to expect.
Regarding his move to Arsenal, he paid tribute to David Dein’s role. He was a “good communicator who knows how football runs. He can talk to everyone, from club presidents to players to the tea lady, and was very good at cutting deals. He got the human side as well. David and Arsene were a great team together, as David provided a sounding board for Arsene.”
Of the contrast to his time at Tottenham, he said, “at Spurs, I was covering 3 or 4 people’s jobs”, no names mentioned. He talked about how good it was to join a team that could win things, his two disallowed goals for England v Argentina in the World Cup and Portugal in the Euros, and the West Ham game in 2006. Of the latter, he said, “You get to the stage where you think that everything you have fought for starts crumbling away for a lot of reasons. I was injured at the time and losing my place. Rumours about my sexuality, father’s death, my brother’s prison sentence… everything you have built up is being chipped away. When it started to hurt my family, it was not chipping away but hacking away. I was under severe pressure for 5 years and it was too much for my system. It was a ticking timebomb waiting to happen. I probably just needed a holiday – a break. Which I did - I went to Brussels. David Dein came over and we had a nice meal – it a nice touch. That shows he cares. A lot of things were falling apart around me. West Ham was the beginning – it put me on the path to sort myself out. It was like new growth after an Australian bush fire.”
He revealed that at the end of that season, “I told David Dein and Arsene I wanted to find a team abroad. I tried to get to Juventus but Deschamps said no. No-one knew the Champions League final was my last Arsenal game. I wanted to move and start again and a fresh start abroad could have been the best thing for me. Senderos and Clichy both got injured. Arsene would not have played me and Ashley Cole in that final otherwise. Fate fell on my side so he had to play me.” He talked about the chances Arsenal had to win that final at 1-0 up, believing they could have won the trophy even with ten men.
He talked about his time at Portsmouth, including one occasion when the prozone stats revealed that keeper David James had covered more distance in a match than Kanu. He also stated that he would give coaching a try once he had got all his badges, but was in no rush.
Of Arsenal’s injury woes in recent times, he stated, “You need a few more players in certain positions. So you can rest and rotate and the level does not drop. Beyond the first 13 you need more to take up the slack. When a big player does go, it’s a big problem – there is no-one to fill that void.”
On the theme of the club today, he said, “You have to have good players and Arsenal need to spend money so teams are frightened of you. You need options and a few more players who can frighten other teams, the ability to kill teams off, cutting edge, ruthless type of player in your side.”
Finally, asked how he would like to be remembered for his time at Arsenal he responded, “as a guy who game his all in every game”. Sol then signed copies of his biography. There may still be some available to AISA members for £12.50 plus postage as Sol was asked to sign extra copies over and above those sold to attendees on the night, as the event was oversubscribed.
More details on the evening can be read on the AISA website.
We will also be running a competition on the website next week to win one of three copies of the biography that Sol signed on the night.
‘Sol Campbell - The Authorised Biography’ by Simon Astaire is published in hardback by Spellbinding Media with an rrp of £18.99.
